causing fear or worry: 2. used to refer to something that you do not like or want: 3. Definitions of dreaded adjective causing fear or dread or terror “polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was” synonyms: awful, dire, direful, dread, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, … Define dreaded. dreaded synonyms, dreaded pronunciation, dreaded translation, English dictionary definition of dreaded. Causing terror or fear: a dreaded disease. You can use the dreaded to describe something that you, or a particular group of people, find annoying, inconvenient, or undesirable. Definition of dreaded adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. Find 111 different ways to say DREADED, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at Thesaurus.com. Over time, the word evolved to its current form, indicating a strong feeling of fear or apprehension.